Case Study: Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau

By Samantha Hopper

Background

The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau  helps coordinate visitor services and implements marketing programs to bring more economic activity and enhance life in the Chapel Hill and Orange County community. 

The Visitors Bureau strives to provide quality visiting services to travelers, to encourage longer stays and to achieve an effective marketing program with high quality services. The Center provides free directions, maps and suggested itineraries to those visiting the Orange County area. 

Specifically, the Bureau wants to showcase their abilities to help with planning large, corporate events and meetings. Marlene Barbera, event planner and director of sales, works with both companies as a whole and individuals looking to plan these conferences, helping them find suitable, spacious venues and make travel arrangements.

The Problem

The Visitors Bureau came to 1893 Brand Studio with a need to communicate its specific event and conference planning services in a creative way. 

While it had campaigns in place, it had a lack of visuals and wanted to fill this gap in communication with their audience. Laurie Paolicelli, executive director of the bureau, hoped to find a way to communicate this service in the form of a video. That is where the Brand Studio stepped in.

The Strategy

We knew that we wanted to stick to a similar script, while showcasing the appeal of three different parts of the Orange County area: the UNC campus, Franklin Street and Carrboro. So, we created three separate videos with different b-roll and slightly different scripts, but the same overall message.

The video featuring the campus was to show a peaceful and studious scene, while the one of Franklin Street would display a lively, bustling scene to connect the campus to city life, and Carrboro shots would show a unique and eventful setting that feels homey and comfortable. These three videos together would show the array the area has to offer, ranging from quiet green settings to busy restaurants and outdoor music.

This allows the Visitors Bureau to pull out a specific visual that fits the needs of each individual company or group it’s working with.

The Videos

1. Franklin Street: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KQnJqPdvJzpbRCkgxD43pzMkui5ajov_/view 
2. Carrboro: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BdYpBJm2VGio9Crr2DCD-yMmOtI4W9b7/view 
3. UNC Campus: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11UPvKZ9VGQ1psqrlCrLA8ArHqALINlaP/view

Conclusion

The goal of the video campaign was to show prospective visitors the services that the Visitors Bureau has to offer. We helped them achieve this goal by creating three different videos with similar scripts, staying true to the message the Bureau wanted to send, while showing the beauty and possibilities Chapel Hill and Orange County have to offer. 

The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau used these videos in their internal campaigns. 

Ready to get started with an enhanced visual strategy to support your marketing efforts? Contact us today!